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Conversations with Friends

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Conversations with Friends

By: Sally Rooney
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
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About this listen

'A nuanced, page-turning portrait.' Zadie Smith

'Brilliant.' Marian Keyes

'A sharp, darkly funny comment on modern relationships.' Sunday Telegraph

The critically-acclaimed debut novel from the globally bestselling author of Normal People and Beautiful World, Where Are You.

Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed and observant. At night she performs spoken word with her best friend Bobbi, who used to be her girlfriend. When they are befriended by Melissa, a well-known journalist who is married to Nick, an actor, they enter a world of beautiful houses, raucous dinner parties and holidays in Provence, beginning a complex ménage-à-quatre. But when Frances and Nick get unexpectedly closer, Frances is forced to honestly confront her own vulnerabilities for the first time.

©2022 Sally Rooney (P)2022 Faber Audio Contemporary Contemporary Romance Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Romance Comedy Witty

Critic Reviews

"This book. This book. I read it in one day. I hear I'm not alone." (Sarah Jessica Parker)

"Rooney shares with Plath a knack for particularising a feminine consciousness, and this novel is the best I've read on what it means to be young and female right now." (Daily Mail)

"Sally Rooney writes with a rare, thrilling confidence, in a lucid and exacting style uncluttered with the sort of steroidal imagery and strobe flashes of figurative language that so many dutifully literary novelists employ. This isn't to say that the novel lacks beauty. Its richness blooms quietly." (New Yorker)
All stars
Most relevant  
i loved the characters. didn’t expect anything, caught me off guard. and it was very cute lmao

cute

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Really forced myself to finish this one... I wanted to love it because I really enjoyed Normal People. I can see what the author was trying to achieve - depicting the inner thoughts of a young woman on her path of self discovery but I found the main character very frustrating, pretentious and pathetic. Not for me! the narrator did a good job though

I wanted to like it but found it painful

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If the aim of the writer was to provide characters that you didn’t like then they succeeded. Nobody has endearing qualities and I didn’t relate to them. The intimate moments lacked detail and seemed rushed which left me dubious about it actually being love. I did however like the last scene.
I have it 3 stars as it did its job for me- helped me get off to sleep.

Hmmmm not sure about this one

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I loved this book. I only read it because i loved normal people and the normal people series. I had this book for a while and started it so i could watch the new series. This book was so great, made me think about the world and reflect on my own perspective on love and cheating. Would highly recommend:)

Great read 💕

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Kept on waiting for the story to start. Rambles along with underdeveloped characters and a limping storyline missing tension. pointless

what is the story?

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I was mostly impressed with Rooney's recent novel Intermezzo, so I wanted more. I thought Conversations With Friends, this 'commentary on modern relationships,' would be relatable, funny and interesting. It wasn't. (Maybe that was the idea?) There were moments that echoed these hopes, but they were few. Other than those, the story was not believable, While a lot of things occur in our modern day, for example married people sleeping with other people who happen to be 10 years younger, is not new, there is nothing in the story to make me believe that these characters would ever be in the same room together, ever, let alone go to Étables-sur-Mer together. The storyline (surrounding Frances' health, no spoilers) probably posessed the most versimillitude but it's a pity it didn't provide Frances with any character growth in the slightest. Perish the thought we meet her or anyone else in the book, again. At least one redeeming feature among them is that Nick Conway hangs his nice trenchcoats up before sex.

At least Nick folds and hangs his clothes.

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Plot 1/5--- Characters 1/5--- Style 2/5--- Overall 1/5

First of all, there's no plot to speak of. The story meanders aimlessly, with no clear direction or purpose. It's like reading a never-ending diary of insignificant events that have no bearing on anything. You keep waiting for something to happen, but it never does. The lack of a compelling storyline is mind-numbing. The characters, particularly Frances and Bobbi, come across as overly pretentious. While complex characters can add depth to a story, their constant intellectual posturing and self-importance made it hard for me to connect with them. It's as if they were trying too hard to be profound, which, for me, detracted from their reliability. The constant "he said," "she said" repetition becomes grating after the first few pages. It's as if the author couldn't be bothered to find more creative ways to convey dialogue or emotion. The language is dull and unimaginative, making the book a chore to read. I'm sure it has its merits, but it left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. A more substantial plot, more relatable characters, and a more varied writing style could have made the reading experience more engaging and enjoyable. I would not recommend or reread it.

Simply bad.

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Joyless! A book packed full of Unlikable people , self indulgent superior and brattish . A real struggle to finish this book.

Joyless

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